Salvation

There is an incredible, epic story that is told in this incredible book that we call the Bible.

It begins with God creating the world. He created all the things in it, and finished by creating man and woman in His own image. Adam and Eve had a special relationship with God and with one another that was incredible and perfect.

That is, until sin entered the picture, and man decided to trust his own inclinations and go his own way. At the moment of their sin, a collapse occurred in creation and man began to hide from God. The beautiful relationship that they had once had was gone. God’s response was to curse Adam and Eve along with along with all of creation. So, Adam and Eve and ultimately the rest of humanity suffer utter brokenness before God and one another. Even in Genesis, we see glimmers of hope pointing to the redemption that was coming…and really what the whole Bible is pointing toward!

In fact, God had not abandoned His creation.

He goes to great lengths to call out a people to Himself. In fact, God would use this people to bless all nations, and ultimately from this nation would come His very own Son who would live out his life teaching, doing miracles, loving sinners, and moving toward the cross where He would take the punishment for sin on Himself. The final enemy, death, would be defeated as Jesus rose from the grave on the third day after His death! The news of His resurrection spread like wildfire and Jesus told His followers to go and make disciples of all the nations…and after the coming of the Holy Spirit, they would do just that!

Today, we look back at these incredible truths as we await Jesus’ promise to return for His people to be fulfilled. When this happens, evil will finally be judged and believers will live forever in an eternity that we cannot even begin to imagine! Relationship with God has been restored and all things will be made new…even better than the Garden of Eden!

When the Bible explains how to be a follower of Christ, it really uses two words: repentance and faith. Faith is simply believing that your only way to heaven is Jesus and His sacrifice. It is placing all of your hope in Him and making Him the “Boss” of your life. Repentance means that you “turn around” the direction of your life. We become willing to turn away from our selfish, sinful direction and walk the other way…toward Jesus. When we come to Him in repentance and faith, He places His Spirit in us and we are never the same! He changes us from the inside out. We have a new direction, and we have Jesus to walk with us!

What’s Next?

If you’ve made the decision to follow Jesus, or if you still have questions, we’d love to talk with you about it. Stop by Gateway this Sunday, call us at 901.837.8087, or send us a message. We want to help you take your next steps and learn how to follow Jesus.